


The Fourth Gull

by Kedreeva



Series: The Fourth Gull [1]
Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Kid Fic, Multi, Tetragametic Chimerism, Threegulls, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 16:41:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5463671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kedreeva/pseuds/Kedreeva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The doctors tell Audrey it’s called tetragametic chimerism and honestly, it’s not the weirdest thing to have happened in Haven. She thinks maybe it’s luck, or karma, or fate, but whatever it is, the tiny, sleeping bundle in Nathan’s arms belongs to all three of them right down to her genetics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fourth Gull

* * *

 

 

            She finds out on a Saturday morning, two weeks late and an hour before the boys wake up. For a while she sits in the bathroom, on the edge of the tub, staring at the bright double lines in her hands, and tries to just keep breathing. It isn’t until Duke nudges at the slightly ajar door that she realizes she hasn’t been.

            He walks over to her side like he’s approaching a wild animal, and she feels like maybe she might be. Instead of waiting for him to ask if she’s okay, she just passes him the small, white stick she’s been grasping. He takes it, but he barely glances at it and he doesn’t seem surprised.

            She supposes she shouldn’t be, either. They haven’t exactly been careful, and it is something she knows they all  _want,_ something they have spoken of hesitantly but fondly. With Duke leaning against her side now, offering silent support, all she can hear is the soft way he’d whispered  _do you really think we can do this_  when Nathan first broached the subject.

            She’d felt the same apprehension at the time. Were they ready? Did they have what it would take to be parents? Would it be a  _good idea_ , given how often their lives are in turmoil? She may not have actually grown up an orphan, but she remembers doing so, remembers how lost it felt.

            But the Troubles have been gone for over two years now, and their quiet little port has lived up to its name ever since. There are no more emergencies greater than squabbles and pranks, and most days her paperwork is the most exciting thing that happens to her. Which is why, she thinks, what is before them now seems only daunting, not terrifying.

            When she looks up again, Nathan is standing in the doorway looking sleepy, his hair sticking up at weird angles and a yawn waiting just behind his eyes. He looks between the two of them but he stays where he is and Audrey realizes that Duke has folded the test under one of his hands so Nathan can’t see it.

“Are we having a meeting?” Nathan asks, throat full of sandpaper. He clears it and there’s the yawn, and Audrey can’t help but smile. He’s adorable in the morning. “Can I suggest we change the location?”

            Duke glances over to her, but Audrey doesn’t look at him when she slips her hand under his and takes the rest of their lives back from where he’s hidden it. She sees Nathan’s eyes widen as she gets up and crosses over to him, smiles when his hand is already held out.

            Funnily enough, he doesn’t even look at the test, can’t seem to take his eyes off of her. “Really?” is all he says before lifting his gaze over her shoulder in order to see Duke. Audrey doesn’t have to look to know Duke’s smiling back at him. The excitement in the small room has escalated to an almost palpable level, and she can’t help but smile as well.

            “Three tests can’t be wrong,” Audrey tells him softly. “Looks like you’re going to be a daddy again.”

            The hug he gives her lifts her off her feet and the room dissolves into laughter that is a mixture of happiness and relief.

            Afterward, Nathan declares them all off duty for the day and Duke closes the  _Grey Gull_  so they can have the place to themselves to celebrate. Duke mixes virgin drinks for Audrey and Nathan can’t stop touching her, keeps whispering pleasant nothings into her shoulder and she can practically feel happiness radiating from him.

            They eat brunch on the wrap around deck, and Nathan makes plans aloud for over an hour while Audrey and Duke enjoy not having to fill the silence. It is warm and pleasant and Audrey thinks that this is how it is supposed to be. The three of them ready to move forward in the world together, no matter what.

            That night, they fall asleep tangled up in one another, Audrey curled up between the two of them safe and sound, three sets of hands resting softly on her belly.

 

\-----------

 

          In the weeks that follow, they try to keep it under wraps, but Haven is small and Nathan has never smiled so much in his whole entire life. Dwight puts up with about two days of it before he quietly congratulates Audrey in private. The rest of the PD figure it out before long - they are cops and detectives after all - and three months into the pregnancy Nathan finds out that there’s a department betting pool on who the father is.

          He puts $20 on Duke, just so he can see Duke’s face when he tells him. Duke puts $100 on Nathan, just to be contrary. They’re both surprised when Dwight puts $20 on Duke, until Dwight tells them  _betting on the sailor to be a better swimmer_.

          There’s a lot of speculation about where Audrey’s bet will land, but everyone gets a laugh when she says  _I’ve never chosen between them before, why start now?_  and puts her $50 in a third category: both.

          Six months later, Audrey takes home the entire pool when the DNA tests come back.

          The doctors tell her it’s called  _tetragametic chimerism_  and honestly, it’s not the weirdest thing to have happened in Haven. She thinks maybe it’s luck, or karma or fate, but whatever it is, the tiny, sleeping bundle in Nathan’s arms belongs to all three of them right down to her genetics.

          “I can’t believe we made her,” Nathan whispers, tone pitched up to a coo. “She’s perfect _.”_

          “Grace,” Audrey says, flushing a little when both boys look at her. They had discussed a lot of names, but they both told her that it was up to her.

          Duke squeezes Audrey’s hand a little tighter and she catches him smiling as he watches Nathan gently rock their child. “Grace,” Nathan repeats, reverent and loving. “It’s perfect.”

          “Do you think changing diapers will disillusion him any?” Duke asks in a loud-quiet voice meant for Nathan to hear. Nathan just rolls his eyes because they all know there is nothing that could decrease Nathan’s love of children. 

          Nathan leans forward enough to touch his nose softly to Grace’s and responds with: “I think Daddy Duke gets to change the first one just for that.”

          Audrey laughs, and something within her uncoils, relaxing. Looking between Duke and Nathan and the tiny, sleeping life they had created between them, she knew that they were going to be alright.

 

\----------

 

          Grace first speaks at almost one year old as Nathan bounces her gently in his arms in the middle of the station for a visit. She has heard the phrase often enough that none of them are surprised to hear the words  _love you!_  babble past her lips and the response is so unequivocally happy that she says it six more times, repeating it every time her parents echo her.

          Love doesn’t begin to describe what they feel for her.

          On the deck of the  _Rouge_ , she takes her first unsteady steps, all five fingers of her right hand wrapped around just one of Duke’s for reassurance rather than support. She takes two wobbly steps toward Audrey before releasing her daddy’s hand, and stumbles the next two steps into Audrey’s waiting arms. Nathan has the entire event recorded on his phone, and the three of them watch it over and over as they lay curled up in bed later that evening. 

          Pride doesn’t begin to describe what they feel about her.

          When she turns seven, she sets aside her bike in favor of the child-sized jetski that Duke tugboats in behind the  _Rouge_ for her birthday. Nathan and Audrey spend the entire rest of the day teaching her how to ride it safely while Duke watches from the dock. He takes her out when the other two aren’t looking, and finds that she is a natural on the water, skimming around in the wake of the  _Rouge_  like she belongs there. Duke takes the whole family out on weekends, and Nathan buys Audrey a matching jetski so she can keep Grace company on the waves.

          Happiness doesn’t begin to describe what they feel because of her.

          At eighteen, she is  _beautiful_ ; lanky like her fathers, with Audrey’s slender hands. She’s got one brown eye and one blue, with dark, curly hair that falls constantly into them both when she doesn’t tie it all back. It is Nathan’s slow, shy smile on Audrey’s sweet face and Duke’s laughter that spills from her lips so easily. Her words bite with the same wit and sarcasm as her mother’s and she demonstrates her fathers’ mischievous charm and heartfelt sincerity in equal measure. 

          She is their world, and they would never have it any other way.

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Emotionally Compromised](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14424270) by [BirdyMarie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BirdyMarie/pseuds/BirdyMarie)




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